Press Release, Feb 26, 2014

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn, and Members of Congress held a press event today to announce a discharge petition on the minimum wage.  Leader Pelosi and House Democratic Members were joined by business owners and advocates who called on Congress to pass H.R. 1010, the Fair Minimum Wage Act, and #RaiseTheWage to $10.10 for millions of Americans.  Below are the Leader’s remarks:

“On behalf of my colleagues behind me and across the aisle here, I want to thank...

Op-Ed By Gina Schaefer
Capital Gazette (Annapolis), Feb 25, 2014

It didn’t take long after my husband and I opened our first hardware store in 2003 for people to start coming in and asking us to open in their neighborhood, too.

By 2009, we had grown to six Ace Hardware stores in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., with our seventh store opening in 2010 in Takoma Park. The next year, Old Takoma Ace Hardware was one of four stores, out of 4,500 locally-owned and operated Ace Hardware stores worldwide, to win the “Coolest Hardware Store” award...

By Seung Min Kim
Politico, February 25, 2014

House Democrats will formally launch a discharge petition Wednesday on raising the federal minimum wage ... House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will lead an event Wednesday afternoon flanked by her top deputies, rank-and-file Democrats, and business owners and advocates to make the case for legislation that would phase in a federal minimum wage increase to $10.10 per hour within two years. A discharge petition is a procedural maneuver that allows the minority party to force a vote on the House floor.

The event will “call on Congress...

Letter to the Editor By David Borris
Daily Herald (IL), 2/22/2014

A Feb. 12 letter in the Daily Herald criticized Sen. Dick Durbin, President Obama and Gov. Pat Quinn for supporting a minimum-wage increase, claiming that doing so will be bad for business. I’m the owner of a thriving small business with 25 full-time and 80 part-time and seasonal workers. I pay all of my employees a living wage, and I’m here to tell you that letter writer is wrong.

The current bill in Congress will raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour over...

By Amanda Yeager
Baltimore Sun and Howard County Times, February 20, 2014

Brian England and Pete Mangione both own businesses that have been Howard County institutions for three decades. They both say they care deeply about employees. But when it comes to whether or not state legislators should raise the minimum wage, they — like many other business leaders in Maryland — don't see eye to eye.

A state bill seeking to raise the minimum wage in Maryland for the first time since 2009, from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour by 2016, has backing...

By Diana Reese
Washington Post, Feb 20, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Two small business owners who decided it was only fair to pay their employees more than the minimum wage were given “Bacon Awards” in a sidewalk ceremony Wednesday by Organizing for Action – Missouri, a nonpartisan social advocacy group. Supporters gathered in Kansas City’s charming Brookside neighborhood to honor Pam Hausner, owner of Big Vision Media Group, a small marketing agency and certified B corporation, and Jeremy Neff, who with his wife Stacy owns One More Cup, a socially-conscious coffee shop. Both were presented with...

By Eric Morath, Damian Paletta and Carol E. Lee
Wall Street Journal, Feb 20, 2014

... Some business owners say they favor a wage increase. David Bolotsky, chief executive at Uncommon Goods, a Brooklyn, N.Y., online retailer, said boosting the minimum wage would give consumers more money to spend. He backs a proposal advanced by Democrats in Congress that ties future increases to inflation. "That gives me certainty, and that's most important when running a business," he said.

The U.S. government has had a minimum wage since 1938, and it has been raised close to...

Mark Reardon Show
CBS KMOX St. Louis, Feb 19, 2014

Lew Prince, owner of Vintage Vinyl and The Show Me Institute’s David Stokes and  discuss CBO report and minimum wage.

Listen to Interview with Lew Prince

By Randy Ludlow
The Columbus Dispatch, Feb 19, 2014

... [Secretary of Labor Thomas] Perez appeared yesterday with Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Columbus, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to support legislation to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour over three years. Ohio’s minimum wage, set higher than the federal standard because of a 2006 ballot initiative, is $7.95 an hour, with tipped workers entitled to $3.98 an hour. ...

The federal officials spoke with reporters at Brothers Drake Meadery & Bar on E. 5th Avenue, where the owners pay their wait and bartending...

Letter to Editor by Jack Kinstlinger
Baltimore Sun, February 17, 2014

As a retired businessman with 30 years experience as founder and CEO of one of Maryland's largest engineering companies, I am upset that the business community appears to have come together to oppose a reasonable and gradual increase in the state's minimum wage ("O'Malley, skeptics spar over minimum wage," Feb. 11).

Contrary to claims by the business community that an increase will hurt business, the record of states that have raised their minimum wages clearly demonstrates the opposite: That raising the minimum wage improves workers' productivity...